Crime Stoppers

Issue: Homeless Man Gets Bulk Of Reward.

November 20, 2007

The reward debate got a bit unseemly at the end, with lawyers and radio appearances and talk show callers hollering about who should get how much money for doing the right thing, and who was the real hero.

Broward Crime Stoppers thankfully closed the book by doing the right thing Monday, awarding $20,000 (with another $5,000 from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) to Mark Spradley, the homeless man who helped capture the suspected killer of Deputy Paul Rein. Another $1,000 went to Scott Kelly, the pawn shop owner who placed the 911 call when murder suspect Michael Mazza was sitting in front of his store in Spradley's car.

When Kelly called 911 before calling Crime Stoppers, that's when the controversy started over who would or wouldn't get a reward, and whether Kelly called the wrong number to qualify. Crime Stoppers does fine work. But the nitpicking over which number to call in the event of an emergency was counterproductive. The point is to get the public involved in catching suspected criminals.

Lost in some of the discussion over who was the most deserving hero is the fact Spradley and Kelly absolutely did the right thing and reacted quickly, without thinking about a reward, at a time when a suspected cop killer was on the loose and the public could have been in danger.

Spradley, living out of his car, picked up Mazza, and drove him to a soup kitchen before winding up in front of the pawn shop in Hollywood. He recognized Mazza after seeing his photo on television in the shop. Kelly said he had Spradley go out to the car to distract Mazza while he called 911.

The entire South Florida community should be indebted to both, without worrying about who was the bigger hero. Both of them did the right thing at the right time.